The latest issue of the Letter to Our Brother Priests (No. 82, June 2019), addressed to the clergy of France by the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), contains an interesting response to a frequent objection. Here are the most significant extracts.
A reader designated by his initials, Fr. RH, writes, “[Criticism] is more than a habit with the Society of Saint Pius X, it is the very structure of your identity, the way your legitimize yourself depends on it....The day you no longer find anything to criticize will be the day when you will have no reason to exist. Maybe you could look for another reason for being?”
The Letter to Our Brother Priests answers him:
This is an easy criticism, but yet one which does not in the least correspond to reality.The reality is this: “The Society of Saint Pius X is made up of 650 priests, 130 brothers (religious), 80 Oblates (sisters), and is assisted by the 200 sisters of the congregation of women associates, the “Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X.” All of these members minister every day to hundreds of thousands of faithful from 180 Society houses exercising the SSPX's apostolate in 60 countries throughout the world.
Lionel: In general they are mis-informed Cushingites. The blind leading the blind.
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It can be said that 99% of the time the members of the Society of Saint Pius X are devoted to the works of the priestly apostolate, such as preaching and teaching the Faith (sermons, catechisms, etc.), celebrating the liturgy and the sacraments, visiting the sick and the poor, helping families with the education of their children through a network of Catholic schools, and especially (the primary mission of the congregation) fostering vocations and forming them in seminaries (the SSPX currently has 200 seminarians).
Lionel: SSPX seminarians are Cushingites like those seminaries at Pontifical seminaries and universities in Rome who attend the Novus Ordo Mass.
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So, when the need arises, the Society of Saint Pius X publicly confesses the Catholic Faith about a text or an event that puts this Faith in question, as required by holy baptism and confirmation, that certainly constitutes an activity of the Society of Saint Pius X, but certainly not its sole essence.
Lionel : Cushingism is an innovation in the Church brought in by the liberal theologians including Rahner and Ratzinger. It is not the Catholic Faith. The ecclesiastics introduced Cushingite philosophy and theology into Vatican Council II. They also re-interpreted the baptism of desire, baptism of blood and being saved in invincible ignorance with irrational Cushingism. Then they supeficially projected the past popes before Pius XII as contradicting Fr. Leonard Feeney of Boston.They applied the same irrationality to the saints when they mentioned the baptism of desire etc.SSPX is Cushingite.
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Following are two arguments reproduced in full:
The existence of the Society of Saint Pius X is not bound to criticism.
On this point, in issue No.74 of the Letter to our Brother Priests (June 2017), which succinctly presented the Society of Saint Pius X, it was explicitly stated, “It should be noted from the outset that the Statutes of the Society of Saint Pius X do not specifically refer to a doctrinal or liturgical crisis, and do not contain direct criticism of contemporary errors or deviant practices. Each line of the Statutes is oriented towards the sanctification of the members and, consequently, towards the influence of their apostolate.”
Lionel: The statutes support a Cushingite interpretation of Vatican Council II and extra ecclesiam nulla salus(EENS). It does not support a Feeneyite interpretation of magisterial documents, judging from the practical actions of the SSPX.
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In other words, even if the crisis in the Church suddenly ceased, the Society of Saint Pius X would continue its apostolate without any difficulty.
Lionel: It is an apostolate which interprets the baptism of desire, baptism of blood and invincible ignorance with Cushingism and then misinterprets Magisterial documents especially Vatican Council II.
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Without desiring to compare ourselves to these prestigious congregations, it is obvious that, historically, the Dominicans were founded to fight the Cathar heresy, as were the Jesuits to fight the Protestant heresy. That does not prevent them, centuries later and in a completely different context, from continuing their apostolate in the Church, because the criticism of Catharism or Protestantism does not in the least or exclusively constitute their identity.
Lionel: The Dominicans and Jesuits at that time were Feeneyite on EENS.Today they are Cushingite. At that time they were Feeneyite on BOD, BOB and I.I. Today they are Cushingite. So Vatican Council II is also Cushingite for them.
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Similarly, at its own modest level, the Society of Saint Pius X has an identity of a “society of apostolic life” completely independent of the current crisis in the Church.
Lionel: The SSPX is Cushingite.It part of the problem, a part of the crisis in the Church.
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- Is the Society of Saint Pius X the only one making criticisms today?
Moreover, Fr. RH neglects to point out, which after all is part of the question, that the Society of Saint Pius X is far from being the only one today, among Catholics, criticizing the Church’s current direction. Recently, there has been an increase in the publication of public documents on various important points of dogma and morality by lay people, priests, notable groups of theologians and academics, bishops, and cardinals.
Lionel: With Cushingism they are in the same heretical direction as the SSPX, the liberals and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith(CDF), Vatican.
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We note here the following examples, all of which are readily available online and in printed Catholic publications:
—The request by Bishop Schneider, then Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda, at a theological conference in Rome in December 2010, for a new Syllabus which would clarify certain ambiguous passages of the Second Vatican Council and correct the heterodox interpretations which came from it;
Lionel: He is a Cushingite. He is unable to affirm Vatican Council II( Feeneyite) and EENS( Feeneyite).He also cannot say that all Protestants in the present times, need to convert into the Catholic Church for salvation(to avoid Hell).He accepts the New Ecumenism which is based on Cushingism. He also interprets Vatican Council II with Cushingism.
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—The publication, on June 29, 2016, of the “Declaration of Fidelity to the Church’s Unchangeable Teaching on Marriage and to Her Uninterrupted Discipline,” notably signed by Cardinals Jānis Pujats, Carlo Caffarra, Raymond Leo Burke, by Bishops Athanasius Schneider, Andreas Laün, Juan Rodolfo Laise, Taras Senkiv, and many other ecclesiastics and theologians;
Lionel: All were interpreting Vatican Council II, EENS, BOD, BOB and I.I etc irrationally to create a rupture with Tradition(Athanasius Creed, Syllabus of Errrors etc).
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—The “Dubia” concerning Amoris lætitia given to the sovereign pontiff on September 19, 2016 by Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Raymond L. Burke, Carlo Caffarra, and Joachim Meisner;
Lionel : They are Cushingite on EENS and Vatican Council II. They support subjectivism in faith and salvation but reject it on morals.
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—The letter to the pope by the same Cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra, and Meisner on April 25, 2017;
—The “Correctio filialis” addressed to Pope Francis on August 11, 2017 and signed by more than 250 ecclesiastics, university professors, and theologians;
Lionel :They were Cushingites. When it was pointed out to many of them they did not respond. Since they possibly did not want to affirm Vatican Council II and EENS with Feeneyism. This would also be true for many in the SSPX.So they are going along with the false theology and doctrines.They criticize Pope Francis, for heresy, and yet do not call him a heretic.
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—The publication, on December 31, 2017, of the “Profession of the immutable truths about sacramental marriage” by Archbishop Tomash Peta of the Archdiocese of St. Mary in Astana, Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga of Karaganda, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Mary in Astana, joined afterwards by Cardinal Jānis Pujats, Archbishop Emeritus of Riga, Carlo Maria Viganò, titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, Bishop Louis Negri, former bishop of Ferrara, Bishop Andreas Laun, former auxiliary bishop of Salzburg, Bishop Marian Eleganti, auxiliary bishop of Coire, Bishop René Gracida, bishop emeritus of Corpus Christi, and Bishop Elmar Fischer, bishop emeritus of Feldkirch;
Lionel: They reject the immutable truths on faith and salvation with their irrational interpretation of BOD, BOB and I.I.The result is that the Catechisms contradict each other.It is with the same confusion they interpret Vatican Council II.They artificially create a rupture with Tradition and then blame Vatican Council II.
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—A letter published by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former nuncio to Washington, dated October 26, 2018, followed by a second letter dated September 29, 2018;
—The “Manifesto of Faith” published by Cardinal Ludwig Müller on February 8, 2019;
Lionel: Cushingite.
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—The book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Evening Approaches and the Day is Now Far Spent, (Le soir approche et déjà le jour baisse) published by Fayard on March 20, 2019, in which the cardinal affirmed in a public interview on April 5 with Imedia agency, “It is true that currently the crisis is located at the highest level [of the Church]. If we are no longer capable of teaching doctrine or morals, or setting an example and being role models, then the crisis has become extremely grave.”
Lionel : It was always grave. The popes from Paul VI to Francis have not interpreted Vatican Council II with Feeneyism. They also excommunicated Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX bishops for correctly rejecting Vatican Council II( Cushingite). This is serious.
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—The Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church signed by 20 university professors and theologians, and published on April 29, 2019, etc.
Lionel : Same as above. Politically-correct Cushingites.
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Is the fact that so many different people, who are in no way tied to the SSPX, are also publicly expressing their criticisms on the doctrinal and moral situation of the Church not one of the “signs of the times,” of which people so readily spoke about in the 1960s?
Lionel: They have been influenced by the SSPX. Even now after being informed the SSPX will not ask Rome to come back to the faith by interpreting BOD, BOB and I.I, Vatican Council II's, LG 8, UR 3, GS 22 etc with Feeneyism. Then there will be a harmony with the past ecclesiology which has been rejected by Pope Benedict, Cardinal Ladaria, Cardinal Muller, Archbishop Di Noia and so many others employed at the Vatican.There has been no opposition in the Catholic Church to these errors.
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And as the Second Vatican Council said in Gaudium et spes4, has there not always existed a “duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel”?
Lionel : These are not the signs of the time. This is human error and the SSPX is part of it.
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Therefore, it would be useful to stop paying attention to the few criticisms made by the Society of Saint Pius X and question the significance of this burst of criticism coming from within the ecclesiastical structure itself, and to do it honestly and courageously, without turning into an ostrich, nor being told over and over again that everything is for the best today in a booming Church.
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